Kukla's Korner Hockey

“We have a goal and a mission,” said Iginla. “We’ve been out of the playoffs for three years. This is going to be a shortened, intense season. We don’t need any distraction. I definitely don’t want that to be the talk.

“It’s part of hockey and you always talk about those things during a season, but I don’t want to contribute to that (distraction).”

Hence Sunday’s scheduled air-clearing.

“That’s why we felt it was best to address it in this way,” Feaster said on Day 1 of training camp. “We all recognize that Jarome is entering the last year of his deal — we fully understand the situation. But we’re not going to negotiate in public. We’re not going to talk about it publicly.”